Football Manager database licensed for real scouting

British developer Sports Interactive has made a business - a very fine, profitable and long-running business - out of accurately simulating the statistics of football. Its Football Manager series reaches the best part of 1m people (more if you count pirated versions) with each instalment each year, and its accrued database is enormous.

Now that database is going to help educate real-life transfers in football.

What does the BBC's new pundit Rio Ferdinand think about that? Oh! He's turned into Lord Voldemort.

Football analyser Prozone struck a deal with Sports Interactive to use biographical, contractual and positional details from the Football Manager series, reported the BBC. Prozone Recruiter is a service many football clubs use to scout players with.

"For years we've heard stories of real-life managers and scouts using our data to help with the recruitment process," said Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson.

"From now on, it's official. Real managers around the world will be finding and comparing players using data and a search system that will be very familiar to players of Football Manager."

Football Manager 2015 was announced the other day and has a November release date. But that's all the detail we know - specifics will wait until October.

Bertie is a senior staff writer, which doesn't mean he's old, although he is, a bit. He's part of the furniture here and reports on all kinds of things, the stranger the better. He's a bit odd but then who isn't? @Clert on Twitter.